Creative Happiness - The Short List

Yesterday, my daughter was in a play. She's 7, but she got to wear granny glasses and wear a shawl while singing and dancing. It was fabulous. The whole cast was so great.

Afterward, my husband told her why he was so proud of her, and what he said next, I thought, was wisdom that could be applied to anyone pursuing creative happiness.

He said he was proud of her because:

1) She was really good at what she did,

2) She worked really really hard at it, and

3) It brought her great joy.

I thought, what a great way to look at whatever you pursue in life. That combination of things has been described endlessly. Malcolm Gladwell talks about #2 in his book "Outliers." Bazillions of books have been written about #1 and #3. But it's putting them all together that really causes great things to happen.

On a large scale or a small, community-theater scale.

So I'm going to keep that list in mind. Thanks to my husband, such an organized thinker who can lay things out like that and make them seem so clear. Much clearer than a shelf full of self-help books at the store.